What exactly is raw? and why do you choose to eat like that?

Raw is eating your foods uncooked. I choose to eat raw because I feel so much better on a high raw diet. The foods have not being cooked to death (literally). They are alive and full of nutrition and enzymes. I believe that the body was originally created by God to eat raw foods.

How do you get fats?, sorry, you'll have to excuse my ignorence

Well, avocados, nuts and seeds, coconut, and olives are good fat sources. Sprouts are also a good source of essential fatty acids, believe it or not. It is easy to get sufficient fat on raw foods.

I have some questions too actually, hope you don't mind if I ask them in your thread:

Why do you say they're "alive"? It's not like you're eating plants that are still in the ground. If you don't eat the lettuce in the fridge it goes bad just like cooked food. If it was alive wouldn't it continue to grow?

I understand people wanting to eat fresh fruits/veggies/nuts/whatever, but what I don't get is why do people who are more towards totally raw care about seasonings/sweeteners being raw? For example that agave syrup thread. What about the agave being raw or not matters?

I've read there is a certain temperature that you can't go above for raw foods. What decided that specific degree is ok but over it is not? What is the difference between something "cooked" to that degree, and something cooked to say, 10 degrees above it?

Bluegrrrl79,
When you pick a plant from the ground there are enzymes present in that food. After you pick the plant the enzymes start to die. Which is why it's important to eat foods as soon as possible for best health.

As far as the temp goes...generally most raw foodist agree that enzymes start to die around 105 degrees and are completely killed by 120 degrees. This is why keeping the temp low is so important. Most raw foodist only warm there food...like soups and such to finger warm because 105 is like the temp of bath water...not hot at all.

As for your question about seasonings and sweeteners and such...some people simply believe in having a pure diet. Some are happy with being high raw because they feel good. I suppose an analogy is the difference between vegetarian and vegan...some don't want any animal products, and some are happy with adding in some dairy products...some choose this because of diet, some are vegan based on principles...similar arguments apply with raw foods. Some people are very snooty and believe only 100% is really raw...others feel that you are a raw foodist if you're high raw.

I know this is kind of a "Reader's Digest" answer...I'm sure someone will give a more in depth explanation.

So what would you eat, for example for dinner, lunch etc?

We say that raw foods are alive becuase they still contain enzymes. Yes, enzymes do start to die after the plant is picked. That is why fresh foods are best. That's also why a huge percentage of my diet is sprouts. They are still alive at the moment you eat them and they are still growing.

Personally, I don't eat all raw because I enjoy the freedom of being able to eat what I want sometimes. I don't want to feel restricted or in bondage to any regimen. And personally, I don't care whether or not my seasonings and agave nectar are raw. The preponderance of my diet is raw. I don't care if I eat some things that are cooked.

The difference between preparing food below 118 degrees and above it is that enzymes start to become denatured or "killed" around 118 degrees. One of the major reasons we eat raw is becuase the food is enzyme rich and enzymes are very important to the body.

Live or living food mostly means that the food is fresh, recently picked from a plant or recently sprouted. Sometimes people will soak and sprout things like nuts, seeds or legumes to bring the 'life' into them before eating them, others just stick to fresh fruits and vegetables with a few nuts and seeds.

I think that raw is the generally known term, however the term 'fresh' makes the most sense to me.

These terms can be a little complicated because raw means uncooked, however there are raw foodists who won't eat certain 'raw' things like raw chocolate or lara bars, or other 'raw' products that have been processed and packaged.

The temperature varies because certain food can sustain life up to different temps. There has been research done where seeds are still able to sprout even after being exposed to 125 for long periods of time. Other times a food can be denatured after being exposed to 120 for a certain period of time.

It is up to each indivdual - some people don't dehydrate or eat dried fruits or unsoaked nuts while others use them more for transitioning to a more fresh diet.

What happens when the food has been denatured, or cooked, is that the body doesn't see it as fresh and useable as its nutrients have been deranged. Therefore the body works harder at trying to assimilate the nutrients. Humans and their pets are usually the only beings and animals on the planet that cook their food, with some exceptions. Even wild carnivores eat their meat in raw form.

Eating fresh food in the form of fruits, vegetables, and some nuts and seeds gives a body the absolute best fresh clean fuel and nutrients possible. The body uses so much less energy in processing the food and has available energy for doing other things, namely healing itself of a myriad of diseases and will eventually normalize a person's weight.

This site can give more info and testimonies about the benefits of eating a raw food diet: http://www.rawschool.com/home.htm

The more raw, fresh and whole food you eat, the more benefits you will get. Eating a fullly fresh diet will enable you the highest health benefits. The faster and simpler and higher a person takes in raw, the faster the detox effects. If you are coming off addictions such as caffeine, sugar, tobacco, etc. headaches and other symptoms may happen with more severity the first day or two.

You can do all kinds of different things for meals at any time of the day:

Fruit meals - one type of fruit, as many as you care for; several types of fruit mixed together; a smoothie; a pudding; a fruit soup; apples and fresh nut butter, etc.

Vegetable meals - any kind of salad or slaw, a soup, a bunch of celery plain or with a dip like guacamole or nut butter, chopped marinated veggies wrapped in greens; crudites dipped in freshly made salsa, guacamole or other dip; a whole cucumber

You can play around eating one type of food, two or more. The possibilities are endless. There are also tons of raw recipes on the web, plus many great books. Here are a few good ones:

Shazzies Detox Delights by Shazzie - a nice little book with simple drinks, salads, puddings and a few meals www.shazzie.com

Raw Food Real World by Matthew Kennedy and Sarma Melngailis- trendier, 'hipper' kind of raw food, lots of photos. Amazon sells this for a great price through the new and used book sellers.

The High Energy Recipe Guide by Dr. Doug Graham - very basic, user friendly no fuss recipes with proper food combining www.doctorgraham.cc Doctor Graham uses a more natural and high fruit, low fat approach, has been training athletes and been on this type of diet for 30 years.

The Garden Diet site (www.thegardendiet.com) has some great e-books and photos, and DVDs available. A raw family with 4 kids, and wonderful info on both raw and cooked vegan pregnancies. They don't do a whole lot of complicated recipes (and no dehydration) either, mostly fruits, juices, and salads with a few recipes here and there to round out their diet.

Living on Live Food by Alissa Cohen - Heavier, denser transitional dishes, for people coming off a Standard American Diet. Lots of good info for people new to raw. www.alissacohen.com

The Boutenkos (www.rawfamily.com) family from Russia who changed their health around on the raw diet. Best book is called Raw Family by Victoria Boutenko, also available on Amazon. Green For Life is another great book with lots of terrific info on the importance of greens for optimal health.

Well I typed out a book. Hope that helped though!

Yup, Thanks for that. Sounds interesting

Thats for the info. I 've been curious as to what raw was also.

This is really interesting, thanks for the insight. I do have a couple questions though...

First of all, why does it matter if the enzymes are denatured? I mean, it's not like our bodies can utilize plant enzymes in their native form anyway. And heat denaturation doesn't have any effect on the amino acids present in a protein, just the protein's overall structure. Besides, the all the enzymes will be denatured by the low pH of our digestive juices as soon as they enter the stomach anyway - so why does it matter if they're denatured before or after you eat them?

Secondly - the temperature cut off for cooking seems really arbitrary. Most organisms evolve so that their enzymes have temperature optimums very close to the temperature of the organism's environment. Since I can think of very few plants that normally grow in temps of 115 degrees (cacti, other desert plants I guess?), it seems like if you were really worried about the enzymes being in their "natural" form you would not want to cook the food at all.

I hope this doesn't come off as critical, it's not at all intended to be - I'm just not sure I understand the logic behind raw foodism.

Any additional insight is much appreciated!

~Hannah

Personally I have never really got into the enzyme part of raw food. The information I share is usually based on how cooked foods are harder on a body and fresh foods are the easiest for digestion and assimilation which in turn leaves energy for a body to heal itself of most diseases.

I know there has been discussions here before on how certain people have a hard time digesting certain raw foods, but I think that is based on their own digestion issues, and not the fault of the fresh food itself. Sometimes people have to go through quite a bit of healing depending on their level of health.

Here are some more raw food FAQ's: http://www.foodnsport.com/mambo2/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=2&id=66&Itemid=60

Personally I have never really got into the enzyme part of raw food. The information I share is usually based on how cooked foods are harder on a body and fresh foods are the easiest for digestion and assimilation which in turn leaves energy for a body to heal itself of most diseases.

I know there has been discussions here before on how certain people have a hard time digesting certain raw foods, but I think that is based on their own digestion issues, and not the fault of the fresh food itself. Sometimes people have to go through quite a bit of healing depending on their level of health.

Yes I am one of those people who has a harder time digesting raw food then cooked. I don't get how cooked food would be harder, unless you're talking about whole grains maybe? I dunno for me a piece of white bread is very easy to digest, whereas an apple I need to take digestive enzymes for. I completly agree this is the fault of my digestive system, most people can eat apples fine. But I think still in general, raw food IS technicly harder to digest, since normally cooking decreases fiber content.

And thank you to those that answered my questions!

I think because cooked food is so acid forming, your digestive acids are so much harder at work - generally most raw food is alkaline.

I just googled and it came up with this chart, I'm sure there are many others out there: http://www.essense-of-life.com/info/foodchart.htm